COMMUNITY CHURCH OF THE MONTEREY PENINSULA
P. O. BOX 222811
CARMEL CA 93922
(831) 624-8595
Rev. Paul Wrightman, Pastor
Independent and United Church of Christ
May 23, 2021
Dear Friends,
You’re receiving this Worship Service a bit early because Elizabeth and I will be leaving for eight days in a cabin near Sequoia National Park on Friday morning. THERE WILL BE NO ZOOM WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY. We’ll pick up again on Sunday, May 30th.
Sunday, May 30th is also the date for our next congregational meeting. Jane Heider will be sending out a link a day or so before the meeting, which will begin at 2:30.
A full edition of Beyond Sunday will be coming out at the end of the month. If you would like to submit an article to Carole, she’s still accepting them through Sunday, May 23rd.
Stay Safe, Take Good Care,
And Always Remember that Jesus IS Emmanuel, God WITH Us.
Pastor Paul
WORSHIP SERVICE FOR MAY 23, 2021
INTRODUCTION: A SELECTION OF READINGS ON AWARENESS
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. –Psalm 139:1
How another sees you depends on how you see him. Respect him, and he will respect you. –Michel Quoist
The only way to get our values right is to see, not the beginning, but the end of the way, to see things, not only in the light of time, but in the light of eternity.
--William Barclay
Jesus was not concerned with advice about conduct, but with the exposure of motive, penetrating the inner heart’s secrets with the two-edged sword of his inescapable insight. –F.R. Barry
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with indifference. –George Eliot
If we do not understand our fellow creatures we shall never love them. And it is equally true, that if we do not love them we shall never understand them. Want of charity, want of sympathy, want of good feeling and fellow-feeling – what does it, what can it breed but endless mistakes and ignorances, both of men’s characters and men’s circumstances. –Charles Kingsley
The person who never notices the person next to him can never move beyond and see the “incognito” Christ in him. –Frank Wright
Whoever really loves will use a magnifying glass to see the small and hidden details of another’s need. I will be able to see that he has cold feet and I can move him nearer the fire; that he is deaf and I must speak closer to his ear; that a secret anxiety torments him; that he longs for a good word; and many more such things which usually lie, seemingly hidden, under the surface of our lives.
--Helmut Thielicke
SUGGESTED MUSIC: Open My Eyes Lyrics
St HelenMusic You Tube
OPENING PRAYER: Robin Green, Contemporary
Giver of Life,
we wait with you to bear
your hope to earth’s darkest places:
we wait at the places where darkness is
deeper than the deepest pain:
where love is denied:
let love break through.
Where justice is destroyed:
let it be reborn.
Where hope is crucified:
let faith persist.
Where peace is no more:
let the cry for peace and work for peace live on.
Where truth is denied:
let the struggle for truth continue.
Where laughter has dried up:
let music play on.
Where fear paralyzes:
let forgiveness break through.
Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Mark 14:32-38
They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’ He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake. . .the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’
Matthew 25:34-40
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”
SERMON: STAYING AWAKE
Rev. Paul Wrightman
(The underlining indicates what I would emphasize if delivered orally.)
Shane Claiborne, who has taken the good news of Jesus beyond the streets of Philadelphia to the slums of Calcutta and the war zones of Iraq, describes how God reveals Godself through the homeless: “I saw one woman in a crowd as she struggled to get a meal from one of the late-night food vans. When we asked if the meals were really worth the fight, she said, ‘Oh yes, but I don’t eat them myself. I get them for another homeless lady – an elderly woman around the corner who can’t fight for a meal.’
“I saw a street kid get $20 panhandling outside of a store and then immediately run inside to share it with his friends.” “We saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate because it was all he had.”
“I met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some young guys who would mock her, curse her, and one night even sprayed Lysol in her eyes as a joke. As we held her that night, one of us said, ‘There are a lot of bad folks in the world, aren’t there?’ She said, ‘Oh, but there are a lot of good ones too. And the bad ones make the good ones seem even sweeter.’”
“We met a little girl who was homeless and asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. ‘I want to own a grocery store,’ she said, ‘so I can give out food to all the hungry people.’
“Mother Teresa used to say, ‘In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises.’ Now I knew what she meant.” (Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution)
-------
The immediate context for today’s text is Jesus taking Peter, James, and John with him to the Garden of Gethsemane to keep watch with him while he prays. Of course the three disciples fall asleep. Jesus is disappointed and asks: “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?”
Rather than focus on the immediate context, however, today I would like to hugely expand our context by placing another text alongside our reading from Mark, namely, Jesus' teaching near the end of the Gospel of Matthew, which is popularly known as “The Last Judgment.” Here Jesus makes the shocking point that when his followers help someone in distress they are connecting with Jesus as well.
A basic principle of biblical interpretation is that the text transcends its immediate context and can apply to numerous other situations as well. Jesus often intended his teaching to his immediate disciples to apply to all his future disciples as well. As long as we don’t contradict the original meaning, Jesus wants us to look for new ways in which to apply his teachings.
The new twist that I would like to give to Jesus’ statement about staying awake with him involves three distinct steps: Step 1 is to affirm Jesus’ teaching about his presence in those in various types of need. Step 2 links Matthew 25 to Gethsemane. Step 3 greatly expands the reach of Jesus’ statement to Simon Peter to include ourselves.
Doing this, the question “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?” becomes for us: “Why are you constantly falling asleep to my real presence in the poor?”
In his book, When There Is No Miracle, Robert Wise wrote about hearing a man named Cecil Henson tell his “death story” many times. In 1940, Cecil was pronounced dead for twenty or thirty minutes, and after his resuscitation and recovery, he was a different man, and now ready to pour himself into the raising of his young son Van.
Cecil said that during his period of “twilight” he encountered Jesus in person. In those moments he looked into the face of the risen Christ and saw him in his glory. Robert Wise writes: “It is Cecil’s description of Christ’s face that has gripped my imagination through the years. He saw the face of Jesus as a marvelous mosaic made up of hundreds of small facets. Each piece added a shade or line to the total picture. In looking into this composite face he could see the countenance of Christ.
“But as he looked, he could see that Christ’s face was made up of hundreds of different parts. Cecil’s startling realization was that the pieces of the mosaic were not tile, metal, or glass. Each tiny section was a clear, distinct cameo of someone else’s face. As Cecil stared at the face of Jesus, there was a fluctuation between his face and the cameo sections. One moment he could see the face of Jesus, and then in the next he was aware of hundreds of faces.”
In this near-death experience, Cecil Henson was given an awesome vision, a living illustration of Matthew 25 when Jesus says “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”
A brilliant person named “Anonymous” once remarked that genius consists of putting two disparate things together that have never been put together before. With our much greater knowledge of first century Judaism, we know that Jesus was quite fond of doing just this: putting things together that had never been put together before.
We now know that Jesus was the very first person to join together two commandments that had never been combined before. Judaism had long taught that the greatest commandment of all was “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul” (Deuteronomy 6:5). To this best-known of all commandments, Jesus boldly added the often overlooked commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
In joining these two commandments – love of God with love of neighbor – Jesus made one of the most daring moves concerning religion ever made on this planet – he made love of God and love of neighbor equally important!
No, way more than this, putting these two commandments together meant that for Jesus one could not love God if one did not love one’s neighbor.
Add to this the fact that Jesus expanded the meaning of the word “neighbor” to include anyone in need, especially one’s enemies, and we begin to get a glimpse of how radical Jesus really was – and is.
Philip Anderson shares the following: “Not long ago I visited my sister, a director or patient services for the children’s unit of a large southern California hospital. She was conducting me on a tour through that unit. All the time – echoing through the halls – we could hear the cry of a baby coming from one of the rooms.
“Finally, we came to that room. It was a little child, about a year old, covered with terrible bruises, scratches, and scars – from head to toe.” I’ll spare you the gruesome details of how Anderson learns that these injuries were caused not by some terrible accident, but by the child’s own parents.
He continues: “But I want to tell you what happened then. My sister leaned over the crib, and very carefully and tenderly lifted the child, and held the child next to herself. At first the child screamed all the more, as if its innocent nature had come to be suspicious of every touch. But as she held the child securely and warmly, the baby slowly began to quiet down. And finally, in spite of wounds and hurts and past experience, the child felt the need to cry no more.”
At this point Anderson becomes prophetic, prophetic not in the sense of seeing the future, but prophetic in the original meaning of the word, which means to challenge evil. He powerfully concludes: “That baby remains in my memory as a living symbol of the choice we face in the mission of the church. Are we willing to let life’s most precious values be battered and starved and crucified by default? Or will we reach out and pick them up and hold them close to our hearts? The time for commitment is not next year or next month, but now!”
I find these words especially relevant in the context of the global refugee/immigrant crisis, when more and more countries are passing laws and building walls to keep refugees and immigrants out. Many see this global “hardening of the heart” against refugees as a direct repudiation of Christian values.
While “open borders” is no long-term or sustainable answer, neither is arbitrarily divorcing religion from politics, and claiming that religion should concern itself only with the “spiritual.”
Jesus himself did not give us that option. By adding love of neighbor to love of God, he established once-and-for-all that love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor. Real love of God, according to Jesus, always includes love of neighbor. Real love of God, according to Jesus, always entails practical, political consequences.
Personally, I don’t think Jesus would say, concerning the United States specifically, that we have a moral obligation to let in all the refugees at our border. This would be an example of the ‘bind leading the blind,” to the eventual detriment and possible destruction of both.
But neither can I see Jesus condoning the inhuman conditions that refugees detained at our border are forced to endure.
The problem is that we want “easy” answers when there are no “easy” answers. The very impasse between the “easy” answers of Republicans and the “easy” answers of Democrats on this issue should alert us to the fact that what is really needed is a long-term, in-depth approach to the problem, an approach which addresses the root causes of what forces people to become refugees in the first place.
I think Jesus would say that if we really loved our neighbors who are refugees we would give them the time and trouble of coming up with real answers to their real dilemmas.
I’d like to close with an illustration I’ve used before. I love this illustration because it teaches us that we can be enlightened and made whole precisely by those we often assume to have nothing to offer – in the case of this illustration, by someone who is homeless. The same lesson could, of course, be equally taught by someone who is a refugee.
Long before Sebastian Junger wrote The Perfect Storm, he decided to hitchhike across the country. He writes of what took place while making his way through the aftermath of a blizzard in Gillette, Wyoming: “After two or three hours I saw a man working his way toward me along the on-ramp from town. He wore filthy canvas coveralls and carried a black lunch-box, and as he got closer I could see that his hair was matted in a way that occurs only after months on the skids. I put my hand on the pepper spray in my pocket and turned to face him.
‘You been here long?’ he asked. I nodded. ‘Where are you headed?’ “California.” ‘Warm out there.’ ‘Yup.’ ‘You got enough food?’
I thought about this. Clearly he didn’t have any, and if I admitted that I did, he’d ask for some. That would mean opening my backpack and revealing all my expensive camping gear. I felt alone and ripe for pillage, and I just didn’t want that.
‘I got some cheese,’ I said. ‘You won’t make it to California with just a little cheese,’ he said. ‘You’ll starve.’
At first I didn’t understand. What was he saying, exactly? I kept my hand on the pepper spray.
‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘I know. Listen. I’m living in a car back in town, and every day I walk out to the mine to see if they need me. Today they don’t, so I won’t be needing this lunch of mine.’”
Junger continues: “I began to sag with understanding. In his world, whatever you have in your bag is all you’ve got, and he knew ‘a little cheese’ would never get me to California. ‘I’m fine, really,’ I said. ‘I don’t need your lunch.’
He shook his head and opened his box. It was a typical church meal – a bologna sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips – and I kept protesting, but he wouldn’t hear of it. I finally took his lunch and watched him walk toward town.’”
Junger concludes: ‘I learned a lot of things in college. I learned things in Europe and in Mexico and in my hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts. But I had to stand out there on that frozen piece of interstate to learn generosity from a homeless man.’”
Amen.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How can a better sense of awareness lead one to become a more compassionate person?
Which illustration in today’s sermon did you resonate with the most? Why?
CLOSING PRAYER; Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
Spirit of Justice,
Break open our hearts.
Break them wide open.
Let anger pour through
Like strong storms,
Cleansing us of complacency.
Let courage pour through
Like spring storms,
Flooding out fear.
Let zeal pour through
Like blazing summer sun,
Filling us with passionate commitment.
Spirit of justice, grant me
Anger at what is,
Courage to do what must be done,
Passion to break down the walls
Of injustice
And build a land flowing
With milk and honey
For God’s beloved.
God’s special ones.
Spirit of Justice,
Break open our hearts. Amen.
SUGGESTED MUSIC: Whatsoever You Do
Robert Kochis – Topic You Tube
BENEDICTION
Patiently and persistently, God loves.
Relentlessly and unconditionally, God loves.
Now and forever, God loves.
AMEN.